Savannah and Sebastian drove to the Skids' house, both a little quieter than normal. Sebastian was staring out the window at the passing scenery, and Savannah was anxiously tapping her fingers on her steering wheel as she drove.

She was greatly unsettled by Sebastian's silence; he was the type to always have something to say. "You okay, Baz?" she decided to ask.

He finally looked at her, and his soft, gentle eyes made her heart melt. "Yeah, sorry." He chuckled. "I'm just trying to be prepared for anything they might say. Like, I'm envisioning every possible scenario and figuring out how I'd respond to them."

"Smart." She put on her blinker before turning onto the Skids' street. "But don't do that, I don't think they'll have an approach where that's needed. I don't want you stressing."

"They might," he grumbled in reply. "Clearly they're capable. We've seen that."

"Yes, but Rachel acknowledged that his approach wasn't the way to go. Besides, did the rest of the guys address you with the same aggression that Rachel did?"

A pause from Sebastian. "No," he finally admitted. After all, none of the guys had given him any issues until after he raised his voice in response to their logic.

"So, really, you don't know if the others are capable."

"I live with them, Sav. They're capable. I've seen them get in fights with each other, and with Doc. It's not pretty."

   "Yeah? Well, still, don't expect the worst."

   "Why not? It only sets me up so that I won't be disappointed."

   Savannah went quiet a moment. "I can't really argue with that," she acquiesced.

   And, with that, Savannah parked in front of the Skids' house, heaving a sigh. She removed her key from the ignition and exited the car, Sebastian following. Both of them shut their doors, and, with a cheerful beep of her car, it was locked.

   She stared at the house looming above them and exhaled, pocketing her keys. She had just cautioned Sebastian not to expect the worst, but terrible possible outcomes of this conversation were racing through her mind.

   Reading her mind, Sebastian grinned and took her hand in his. "Don't expect the worst," he echoed to her.

   His attitude of not giving a fuck, of not caring if the Skids saw this display of affection, made her admire him even more. She reciprocated the impromptu handholding session, smiling back at the man she was falling for. "Yeah, you're right."

   They walked to the door, and Savannah used its iconic knocker. She wanted to just wrap her arms around Sebastian, bury her head in his chest, and never move again. She wanted to smell his cologne and just be safe, free from Rachel's and the rest of the Skids' disapproval.

   She just wanted him, and as of then, she didn't know if he was what she would get.

   Rachel answered the door. Savannah's instincts caused her to attempt to pull away from Sebastian, but he continued to hold her hand firmly, staring at Rachel with a challenging look, almost daring him to comment.

   Rachel's eyes flickered down to the pair's intertwined hands, and his expression darkened somewhat, but he didn't comment. Instead, he raised his eyes and forced a smile. "Hey, guys. Come in."

   Rachel stepped aside to let them in, and Sebastian looked at Savannah, a self-satisfied smirk on his lips.

   She smiled timidly back, and they both stepped inside. Once they had entered the house, she shut the door, successfully sealing whatever fate awaited them.

The remaining Skids were all spread about on the couch. Each one has an expression that Savannah couldn't read; they were almost carefully blank. She didn't want to make herself at home in a situation like this, so she didn't sit. Instead, she stood there, motivated to do so by the unwelcoming expressions of the Skids. Sebastian stood with her, his hand gently caressing her own.

"You can sit," Rachel offered gently, clearly feeling guilty at her unease.

She nodded, sitting next to Rob. He seemed like the most levelheaded of the group, and something about his presence was much more comforting than the rest's. Sebastian sat on her other side, his hand on her thigh.

She didn't know if he was doing this just to piss off the band, but it almost didn't matter. His motive did nothing to change the shiver that ran down her spine at his touch.

Rachel sat down on the ottoman as opposed to the couch, which was all Savannah needed to see to infer that he would be doing most of the talking; he wanted to be the center of everyone's attention.

That's always true, though, she found herself thinking bitterly, but guiltily brushed the thought away. Maybe he had good intentions today.

"Okay," Rachel began awkwardly. "Before I say anything else, I need to reiterate something."

He reached out and grabbed Savannah's hands, and she felt the petty urge to yank them away. But, she refrained, knowing that there was already one petty person Rachel had to impress. She didn't want to make it two.

"Sav, I'm sorry I said what I did about you. It was completely unacceptable of me. I should have communicated my concerns better, and without making you sound less than."

She waited for an apology to Sebastian, but none came. "Don't you have something to say to him?" She pointed to Sebastian, who didn't look surprised that he wasn't included.

Rachel looked reluctant to apologize. "Well, I do think Sebastian has a habit of pursuing girls with no real intent to be serious with them. I think he uses them as entertainment, and when he's not entertained anymore, he tosses them aside, regardless of how attached they were to him."

Savannah gasped. "Rachel!"

"Man, I didn't come here for my character to be attacked again." Sebastian started to stand up, but Savannah pulled him down again.

"Rachel, please rephrase," she begged. "Nothing's gonna get resolved this way."

Rachel exhaled. "You're right. Baz, I'm sorry. For both what I said just now and what I said earlier. We're friends, and I shouldn't assume the worst of you. Even if your love life has been a little inconsistent, it's not my place to judge or assume that you would intentionally hurt Sav."

He still has to make it a dig. A polite dig, but still a dig, Savannah thought. And is that apology even genuine? Didn't sound it.

"It's. . ," Sebastian trailed off, unsure of how to respond, ". . .okay," he settled, shrugging.

It's not, she thought.

"Good." Rachel looked relieved. "So, uh, onto the rest of it. We're gonna go around the couch and have everyone say their thoughts. That includes you two." He gestured to Sebastian and Savannah. "But, we're gonna have Rob take it away first."

She understood why Rob got to go first. He was good at setting the mood for things; he was much more influential than the media or even sometimes the band gave him credit for. "Oh, okay," he said, sounding surprised. "Um. . .I'm probably the least qualified to speak on this because I'm not as passionate about this as the rest of the guys. But, I don't think this is a good idea, like I said to Sebastian."

As if in retaliation, Sebastian's hand went to her inner thigh now.

She forgot how to breathe.

Rob saw this act of defiance, no doubt, but he chose to ignore it. "It's hard to explain, and I know it sounds stupid when spoken aloud. But a lot of this is just an unspoken, professionalism thing. If you guys are dating or fucking or whatever, yet coexisting in the workplace, you could both get distracted by the other and not do your work as well as you could have. And do you know how nightmarish the paparazzi would be about it? That's all the questions we'd get, and they'd be up our asses about drama regarding you two instead of appreciating our music. Hot gossip is not what we want from this band."

"You seem pretty passionate about it," Sebastian muttered, yet he couldn't deny that this explanation was a lot more eloquent than the one provided earlier that day.

   "Sebastian," Savannah scolded quietly. She also could see the rationale behind this whole thing. Which was annoying, since the principle was still unjust and controlling.

   Rachel nodded at Rob's explanation and turned to Snake. "You next, man."

   "I honestly can't add much, since Rob kinda said everything I wanted to," he replied. "But, I do have one thing that I want to address." He directed his attention at just Savannah and Sebastian. "So, let's say you guys end up dating from this. You have a happy few month period or however long it is. But, then you break up for one reason or another. Business between the two of you would be so awkward, and you probably wouldn't even be able to work together for a while. It would be an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. At this point, I don't think you, Baz, are ready for a forever thing, so that breakup seems inevitable. So, to me, it seems better to not even put yourselves in that situation at all."

   Sebastian gritted his teeth but said nothing.

   Savannah opened her mouth to defend Sebastian, but he squeezed her thigh tightly to silence her. She couldn't tell if he agreed with him, or if he figured that cooperation was the only way that this would end.

   Rachel nodded again. "Scotti?" he prompted his guitarist.

   "Nothing really to add," he replied. "You guys have said it all."

   A pause, then, "Well, maybe I do have something," he said. "But, it may be overstepping. Baz has been told already, but Sav, you haven't heard it. And that point is that you are too much of a young soul to be romantically involved with Sebastian. Even if he has no ill intent, and even if he treats you like a princess, his lifestyle might still upset you. And you're my friend. I don't want to see you upset."

   You are definitely overstepping, Savannah thought, but instead nodded with fake thoughtfulness.

   "Scotti, what the actual—" Sebastian started to say, but Rachel raised a hand to silence him. For some unknown reason, Sebastian obeyed.

"Wait until it's your turn," Rachel scolded. "Anything else, Scotti?"

"Nope."

"Okay. Now, you can go, Baz."

"Gee, thanks for giving me the permission to speak," he spat mockingly. "You guys definitely have some logic backing your points up. I. . .understand where you're coming from." He forced that sentence out like it hurt to say. "But, look at it from our point of view. We like each other. Do you know how agonizing it is to stay away from someone you like, just because your colleagues are worried about professionalism?"

The Skids slowly started nodding, one by one. "I can imagine," Rob admitted. "But—"

"I'm not done," Sebastian cut him off. "And, to hear that you can't act on your feelings for someone, that your actions are being dictated. . .that's fucking infuriating. We want autonomy over ourselves. And professionalism, Sav being a young soul, and the possibility of a breakup, in our opinion, isn't enough to discourage the want for this autonomy."

Savannah had never heard Sebastian speak so eloquently. She rested her hand on top of his, and squeezed it gently.

"Understood. Sav? Anything you wanna add?" Rachel asked.

She shook her head. "No, I don't think so."

"Alright. So, then, we'll address what Baz said," said Rachel. "We understand where you're coming from, guys. And we know that you guys being involved romantically or sexually would be bad for the band, but we also know that what would be even worse for the band was if we fired you for doing so. Our reputations would go in the crapper. So, we technically can't stop you from doing whatever it is you wanna do." This almost looked painful for Rachel to say. "But, we invite you guys to really look inward and think twice about it."

"Because you don't think I can handle it," Sebastian replied. Not as a question, but as a statement.

Very obviously trying to bite back a dig, Rachel shrugged. "That's not really for me to say, is it?"

With a roll of his eyes, Sebastian fell silent.

There was a pause, and Scotti broke the silence. "Just, please make a wise decision. Not even that, please make the right one. Consider the factors we told you about."

Savannah figured that this was progress. The band was actually giving her and Sebastian the option to ignore their wishes. They obviously did not favor this course of action, but her and Sebastian's positions wouldn't be in jeopardy. A weight was lifted off her shoulders, and she found that absurd, given how termination over who she was involved with shouldn't have been a concern at all.

"All right, we'll think about it." She looked over at Sebastian, awaiting his agreement.

Truthfully, she did plan to think about it. She didn't want to make her and the band's work life harder, but she didn't want that fear to get in the way of her wanted, either.

"We'll think about it," Sebastian echoed. He glanced between his band members. "So. . .am I welcome back home now?"

"You were never not welcome," Snake replied with a grin. "You stormed out."

"Oh, yeah." Sebastian giggled awkwardly. "Cool. Um, so, we're gonna hit the road. I'll be back, though; I just have to go to her house to pick up my car."

Rachel nodded, and he, Sebastian, and Savannah rose from the couch. Rachel offered Sebastian his hand for that typical, manly handshake/hug combination. Sebastian reciprocated somewhat begrudgingly, slapping Rachel on the back with much more intensity than normal. Rachel either didn't notice or simply didn't comment as they pulled apart.

"See you later, man," Sebastian said, grabbing Savannah's hand and beginning to guide her to the door.

She waved at Rachel as she was being pulled. Her mind was fuzzy; the rationales of both sides of this whole confrontation were buzzing about in her brain, and she just wanted to go home and slowly sort it all through. She had a feeling she knew what course of action she would choose, though.

Rachel waved back, smiling at her. Something in his smile looked sad, though. Like he knew what she would choose, too.

Her and Sebastian left the house, and as they climbed into the car, they fell into the same quiet with which they drove there.

When they got back to her place and clambered out of the car, Sebastian walked to her side and smiled softly at her. "Thanks for the ride, Sav. I appreciate it."

"No problem, man," she said in reply, grinning back at him.

She turned to her car to lock it, and, as she did, his hands shot out and rested against the car. She turned and saw that each hand was by one side of her head, and a flustered heat ran down her body at the fact that she was caged between his arms.

Her face must've turned red, for he smiled slyly at her. "We're not listening to them," he told her. He grabbed her chin with one hand, pulling her in and kissing her.

She kissed him back, running a hand up his chest. The kiss was slow and gentle, yet it made her press her body to his greedily. He drove her crazy, and he did so in the best way.

After a bit, he pulled apart. He held her face in his hand. "Okay?" he asked, referring to his previous statement of ignoring the band and continuing to pursue each other.

"Okay," she breathed in reply.

And, just like that, her mind was made up.